Return on investment, affordability puts Emporia State University in good company

August 30, 2013

Emporia State University ranks highly when it comes to affordability and return on investment for students, according to AffordableCollegeOnline.org.

“President Obama has made it clear that we need to do better as a nation when it comes to making college affordable,” says AC Online founder Dan Schuessler. “While true, we also need to remain focused on education quality, namely on the colleges and universities with a history of producing successful graduates.”

AC Online developed the following criteria for consideration as a “High ROI College”:

Fully accredited institution

Either public or private

Four-year, degree-granting institution

ROI according to PayScale¹s 2013 College Value Report

AC Online compiled a list of schools meeting these criteria by using the following highly respected, authoritative data sets:

IPEDS (http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/), the primary federal source for data on colleges, universities, and technical and vocational postsecondary schools in the U.S.

Carnegie Classification (http://classifications.carnegiefoundation.org/), a framework widely used in the study of higher education, both as a way to represent and control for institutional differences, and also in the design of research studies to ensure adequate representation of sampled institutions, students, or faculty.

With a return on investment of $198,600, Emporia State University was ranked No. 12 of 91 Kansas institutions evaluated. The university also was named to the Kansas 20-30 Club for universities whose graduates earn starting salaries of more than $30,000 and charge less than $20,000 annually for tuition.

The organization also ranked Emporia State University No. 25 on the list of 54 Most Affordable Online Colleges in the United States.

About AC Online

Affordable Colleges Online provides students with information about affordable higher education options. The website offers financial aid videos, expert advice, and cost savings ideas. AC Online is a trusted resource for college stats and rankings. Most recently the site launched a feature that provides students with a categorized directory of free online introductory, or "101," classes from several top named U.S. universities such as MIT, Michigan and U.C. Berkeley. Rankings are online at www.affordablecollegesonline.org.